But why, if he could see this, did he give Tomlinson his head in the first place? One suspects that there may have been some manoeuvring in the Department for Education and Skills.This may be the reason Blair feels the need to have the trusted architect of many of his education policies in the department. It is a pity so many compromises had to be made, with the result that university finances still aren’t sorted, but the means is there for any government that wants to activate it. Tony Blair succeeded where even Margaret Thatcher backed away.Blair will be remembered too for showing good sense in rejecting the conclusions of the Tomlinson inquiry. If education means anything at all, young people will become increasingly aware of what they are good at, what they like and what they want to do with their lives. This requires an array of courses and qualifications taking them in different directions, rather than just a single all-embracing diploma.

His relocation may have rather more to do with Tony Blair’s concern for his own place in educational history.
As great achievements usually come early in premierships when political capital is highest, Blair’s die is already cast. Okay, so it was a Conservative policy, but through the literacy and numeracy strategies, the first Blair government made it happen.History will also, I think, recognise Blair’s courage in taking on a large part of his own party to get the principle of variable university tuition fees on the statute book. His time in office will almost certainly be remembered for firmly re-establishing that the major task of primary education is to teach all children to handle words and numbers properly. What lies behind Andrew Adonis’s unexpected elevation from policy wonk to the House of Lords and a ministerial post? It doesn’t look as though he has great political ambitions, otherwise a seat in the Commons would have been found for him, as it was for the Milibands, Ed Balls and Pat McFadden. But he or she may well:* Walk early, talk early and be restless and inquisitive* Ask endless questions which take you out of your depth; have good powers of logical reasoning; quickly grasp new ideas* Be an avid reader* Enjoy solving problems on their own* Have good concentration, an unusual imagination, a wide vocabulary and a good memory for facts* Be able to manipulate numbers much better than his or her peers; be a wizard on the computer* Be a perfectionist; have an unusual sense of humour; be a loner; be poorly co-ordinated; have very strong feelings and opinions* Prefer adult company* Get quickly bored doing the same thing. Something has to be done.”A few institutions, like Bridgemary School, in Gosport, Hampshire, are planning to axe age-groups and let students go at their own pace, but most still believe that children should fit schools, not schools children. This leaves parents like Jones forced into being home-educators against their will And it leaves them furious “I didn’t plan this,” she says “I planned to go back to work.

I don’t think I should pay tax, I think someone should be paying me to teach my child! But what we mostly want is some recognition that there are children like this, that there are children who can go higher than the test ceilings, that there is a whole gifted spectrum.” If that happened, she says, it would change everything.How to spot a super-bright childExceptional children vary in what they are good at, and many quick and clever children are not prodigies. You also have to make sure you take account of issues of social maturity, continuity and progression.”Secondary-age children can benefit from NAGTY’s day lectures, online resources and summer schools, she says. “Our policy is to link experts to children, so these would be people well able to cope with their level of questioning.” And there are plans for the academy to develop primary resources, although that will depend on more money becoming available.A further complication for super-bright children is that their giftedness can often be coupled with conditions such as dyslexia or Asperger’s syndrome, which leave schools even more flummoxed. They can see, for example, that they are more interested in the views of other adults than of children And there are many thousands of children like this. Teachers are often challenged and unsettled by such children, parents get angry that their children’s needs are not acknowledged, and situations quickly grow emotional and entrenched.But schools must learn to listen more to the children, and to their parents, insists Lorenz “Parents know when their children are exceptional They know when they are not like other children. Carefully planned acceleration can work very well, but knee-jerk acceleration rarely does.